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Nepal [2.c] Case study by Birendra jha.

Environment   Sep 30, 2017 by Birendra Jha

1. WHAT ARE THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF THIS RESOURCE EXTRACTION ?

Nepal is a small country In Asia which is surrounded by two big populated country India and China. Although every resources have good and bad impacts. My task here is production of coffee in Nepal.

Among the different agriculture products produced and exported from Nepal, coffee is growing as a competitive on with 7.3 percent agriculture export share. Coffee is economically more profitable in the present contest among the farmers. Infact  coffee is grown in Nepal at the attitude of 600 to 1600 meters above sea level. It is sent all over the world. 

COFFE PLANTING IN NEPALको लागि तस्बिर परिणाम

The environmental impacts of this resource extraction :

 Water pollution and contamination--- Contamination of water ways also pose serious environmental threats from the processing of coffee beans. 

Ecological impacts result from the discharge of organic pollutants from the  processing plants to rivers and water way,triggering eutrophication of water system and robbing aquatic plant and wildlife of essential oxygen.

Deforestation--- Farmers have been positively encouraged to plant coffee therefore they cut the trees and started coffee planting which result deforestation.Soil quality is also affected when sun cultivated practices are favoured .                                                                                                                 only a few farmers are getting  profit through exporting coffee but our country is in deep trouble due to deforestation and water pollution which causes climate change.

2. HOW IS THIS CONNECTED TO COLONIZATION ?

Nepalese government as well as some environmental activist are working in this area. Many NGOs are planting new plant. We hope it will be profitable to all of us.     

   



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1 Comment(s)

Alicia Cappello
Oct 4, 2017

Hi Birendra,

Thanks so much for your post for assignment 2c. I love coffee, so I found your comments very interesting. I'm sorry to say that I didn't realize coffee was grown in Nepal, but I'm glad I know this now!

I did a quick internet search about Nepal, climate change and coffee and found a very interesting academic article that you might like to read --> Suitability Analysis and Projected Climate Change Impact on Banana and Coffee Production Zones in Nepal. I was sad to learn that this study found that 72% of suitable coffee-growing areas will be eliminated in Nepal, due to climate change, by 2050. (On the upside, apparently banana production is looking good!) 

I also found an interesting article about climate change and coffee by NOAA, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration in the US. It doesn't mention Nepal specifically, but it does talk about how climate change, in general, will impact coffee around the world.

Finally, I found a website for a program called the Sustainable Coffee Challenge. Apparently they're working towards making coffee the first fully sustainable agricultural product.

I find it interesting how much effort is being put towards saving coffee. It seems people will get onboard a bandwagon if it intimately affects their day-to-day lives. Too bad we don't have the same level of commitment and buy-in for other climate change related initiatives!

You mention in your post that the coffee plantations in Nepal have negative impacts on the environment, specifically with regards to deforestation and water pollution. From what I read (which was very limited), it appears that the majority of farmers who produce coffee have replaced a previous crop or crops with coffee, as opposed to starting production from scratch. Do you find that to be true? Or is it that some of these farmers have expanded the land they farm on in the hopes of making a profit from producing coffee? 

Also, I'm curious about the processing plants you mention. Are these plants that are processing the coffee beans? Are the beans roasted in Nepal, or are they imported by companies who do the roasting? How do these processing plants contribute to water pollution? What sort of organic pollutants are being let back into the water? (I wasn't able to find anything recent on how coffee is processed in Nepal, but I only did a quick search.)

The only other theme I was able to find regarding coffee in Nepal was that the farmers don't currently have the knowledge and/or technology to grow coffee the most effective way possible. But, if this knowledge and technology was better disseminated, the coffee plantations in Nepal could be very beneficial.

Alicia, University of Alberta

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